While a license plate might not seem like much, it was a long-overdue victory for the office of Rep. Harry Readshaw, said legislative assistant Barbara Mowery, a Gettysburg native.

"We're ecstatic," she said. "I'm just clinging off the wall."

Why the excitement?

Readshaw, Mowery and retired legislative assistant Kathi Schue have been working toward getting the plate approved since October of 1997. Readshaw, who represents part of Allegheny County, had read an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about the Gettysburg battlefields lacking funding for monument maintenance and decided he wanted to help, Mowery said.

The idea for a license plate initially hit some bureaucratic roadblocks, she said, but the office found other ways to lend a hand, including sponsoring motorcycle rides and selling $20 Gettysburg vanity plates.

Helping the plate become a reality has been one of the most rewarding moments in Mowery's 17-year career in Readshaw's office.

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"It's been a lot of fun, even though we've had some discouragement," she said. "We're really excited and really anxious to see it."

While the state's Department of Transportation has not yet approved a final design for the plate, the legislation passed by Corbett's office states that it must include a depiction of the Pennsylvania State Memorial and the words, "Gettysburg 1863." The plate will also feature the blue and gold stripes that come on the state's standard license plates, Mowery said.

Readshaw's office hopes to see a final design by Aug. 18, and that the plates will be available for purchase on Oct. 30.

The money from the plates' sales will go a long way in helping Gettysburg National Military Park maintain its Pennsylvania markers, said park spokesperson Katie Lawhon.

The park received $160,000 in federal funding this year for monument maintenance, which it uses to polish, repoint and repair its 1,300 monuments. This funding, however, is not always guaranteed because each of the country's National Parks competes for it, Lawhon said.

While she is not sure how much money the license plate sales could bring in, she has no doubt it will help.

"It would allow us to do more of the routine maintenance, but, more importantly, it would give us the option to respond to a catastrophic loss," she said.

Each year, the park experiences three or four such losses, which can include anything from car crashes to graffiti. These repairs can take years to complete, Lawhon said.

The license plate funds will specifically go toward maintenance of the park's 146 monuments dedicated to Pennsylvania troops, most of which were placed during the 1880s and early 1900s.

This money, however, will not actually go toward maintenance of the Pennsylvania State Memorial because the park already received $1 million in federal funding for its maintenance in 2001, Mowery explained. The license plate will nonetheless feature a depiction of that monument because it lists all of the Pennsylvania troops.